Speaking with Gamasutra, Iwata explained how Nintendo decided in 2007 that they wanted to add a second screen for their next console, which initially wasn’t a part of the controller. “Considering how expensive screens were then, it did not make sense to have this big-sized LCD,” Iwata said, mentioning how the LCD was originally much smaller due to the cost of them at the time.
“The reason we’ve had to wait so long for the actual unveiling of Wii U is simple,” Iwata noted. “We would not have been able to come up with a reasonable price point… We had not decided when we were going to launch the new console [at that point], but we knew we needed to be flexible.”
There are two things I take from this. First of all, Nintendo should have been starting on a second wave of Wii games in 2007. That was when Mario Kart Wii, Smash Bros. and Wii Fit were finishing up development, and after that triumvirate, Wii didn’t get nearly as many good games. But Nintendo had already decided what their next console was! For Wii, Nintendo went through Yamauchi being replaced by Iwata, Iwata’s push to come up with new controller prototypes, and finally landing on Wii, with Wii Sports and the Wii remote being developed in sync. But with Wii U, it was decided in 2007!
The second thing is his explanation that Wii U couldn’t come out earlier because of price. The design philosophy of NES, Game Boy, DS and Wii was “lateral thinking with withered technology.” This means price is not an issue; the technology is withered. With Wii U, Nintendo has to sit around waiting for the technology to wither.
Wii U was actually what everyone thought the Wii controller would be: a Gamecube controller with a touchpad screen in the middle. This is why Wii U is so underwhelming and already stale. An Aonuma quote back then shows the concept was strongly considered prior to 2006.
It is also a mistake to say Nintendo is ‘waiting for technology to whither’. That is what Nintendo says, but that is not what Nintendo does. If Nintendo actually believed that, the 3DS would never have been released. The 3d output has wreaked havoc with the traditional standards of the Nintendo handheld such as great battery life and being accessible to children.
People must realize that raw selfishness is the driving force here. Why wasn’t there a 2d Mario for nearly two decades? Raw selfishness. Why can’t we get a Zelda that downplays the developers’ “creativity”, and focus more on the traditional elements of Zelda such as the intricate non-puzzle gameplay displayed in the earlier Zelda games? Raw selfishness. Why were there two Galaxy games where one was probably too many? Raw selfishness.
There is no ‘creativity’ coming from Nintendo. It is all exercises of selfishness cloaked in the robes of ‘innovation’. It is no coincidence that the 3DS line-up consists of Gamecube-esque games.
The market is clearly pointing which way they want gaming to go. And the market is pointing AWAY from the Gamecube. Yet, Nintendo announces new Gamecube games and calls it ‘innovation’. How stupid do they think we are?
How stupid does Nintendo think its investors are? Apparently, pretty stupid as Iwata chided them for not knowing when they didn’t respond to the Wii U as he hoped.
Nintendo is an extremely predictable company. Everything revolves around the selfishness of the senior developers. If you didn’t like the cell-shaded style of Wind Waker, too bad. Nintendo returns to it. If you like 2d Mario, too bad. It’s already been half a decade since the last 2d Mario on the handheld with no sign of a future one being made (I suspect the Mario Mii game was that 3DS 2d Mario Miyamoto was hinting about and they just threw it onto the Wii U [since they had nothing else to show with playing the console game on the controller]).
The reason why investors are abandoning Nintendo is because they clearly recognize Nintendo is not acting like a serious business. I guarantee you that most of the Nintendo developers believe the business concerns are ‘beneath them’ and, therefore, those customers are ‘beneath them’ as well. They have all learned from Master Miyamoto who openly admits that Super Mario Brothers is ‘beneath him’. This is Shigeru Miyamoto’s legacy: the myth of the ‘game god’. And what is a ‘game god’? A game developer who believes his selfishness is good for gaming (while the gaming market dies all around him).
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